Ant-Man opens big with $104M haul
NEW YORK >> Phase five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have gotten off to a rocky start, but Ant-Man is bigger than ever at the box office.
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” opened with $104 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates, easily surpassing the box-office debuts of the previous two AntMan films.
The Walt Disney Co.’s “Quantumania” added another $121.3 million overseas to give the pint-sized hero a $225 million global launch.
It’s easily the largest opening of the year so far. And “Quantumania” did so despite an atypically poor reception for the 31st MCU film. “Quantumania,” starring Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as the Wasp and Jonathan Majors as
Kang the Conqueror, sits at 48% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the only MCU film to rank as rotten beside “Eternals” (47%).
Audiences also weren’t thrilled with “Quantumania,” giving it a “B” CinemaScore. “Eternals” is the only other MCU film to receive a CinemaScore that low.
Good reviews or not, theaters hope “Quantumania” — the first blockbuster of the year — is a sign of things to come. After the turmoil of the past three years, there are some 30 more wide releases planned for 2023.
“It will feel almost in the coming weeks like a pre-pandemic moviegoing environment in terms of the marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “That’s very good news coming off a very tumultuous past two, three years. This is the start of a big many months for this industry. We’ve sort of been in the waiting room with holdovers like ‘Avatar’ and others.”
In its 10th weekend of release, James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” remained in second place with $6.4 million. With $2.243 billion globally, Cameron’s sci-fi sequel has now just surpassed Cameron’s own “Titanic” — currently back in theaters for its 25th anniversary — as the third-highest grossing film ever.
Last week’s top film, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” slid to third place with $5.5 million. The Channing Tatum sequel has collected $18.1 million in two weeks.